Carlos Galan Vargas/El Salvador/Cocaine Distribution

ICE agents apprehended Carlos Galan Vargas in Omaha, Nebraska. The El Salvador illegal alien faces charges of unlawful reentry, cocaine distribution.

Drug trafficking and distribution charges carry mandatory minimum sentences in the federal system and are treated as priority enforcement matters by both state and federal law enforcement. For illegal aliens, a trafficking arrest also triggers an automatic immigration removal proceeding that moves forward independently of the criminal case. Vargas’s case is expected to proceed simultaneously in both criminal and immigration courts.

Vargas has been placed in federal immigration detention and is scheduled to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge. If ordered removed, Vargas would be deported to El Salvador.